Grandma Great's Food Network

If you are friends with me on Facebook, or if you have visited my grandma anytime in the last year, you probably will understand this post.

If I have heard it once, I've heard it fifty times, Grandma Great is sick to death of peas, sweet potatoes, squash and carrots.  Sick to death of them.  I can almost bet that the first thing out of her mouth when I stop in over my lunch hour will have something to do with the above-mentioned vegetables and her distaste for them.

I know she is sincere; shamefully, I can't help but find it humorous.  I have to keep myself from laughing.   I just smile and nod.  I get it.  What would it be like to have absolutely no control over any of your meals?  I can't even imagine.  At times I have wished for a personal chef, someone to prepare all my meals.  I think that would help a lot with my unhealthy eating habits and weight issues, but even with that, I would retain some control over the menu. 

Grandma has none.  She has a card that sits at her table in the dining room stating anything she absolutely refuses to eat or is allergic to.  There are only a handful of things on there.  Amazingly enough, she hasn't added peas, sweet potatoes, squash or carrots to it yet. And truth be told, I don't eat any of those either, except for a few carrots here and there.

She has a "sneaking suspicion" they open up a large can of peas and use it until it's finished because they will have the same vegetable three days in a row.  I have a sneaking suspicion she is probably right.  Although in their defense, they have a budget, throwing away food is probably frowned upon, and you can't make everyone happy.

She hasn't withered away to nothing, so obviously, she's finding something worth swallowing.  She has a V-8 or tomato juice every day at lunch, which seems to satisfy her in the veggie department.  Works for me.  And she has her Peppermint Patty stash (hands-off, those are for her enjoyment ONLY, you can have the 'other' candy) she can delve into anytime she wants to kill any lingering bad tastes left from those putrid vegetables.

Last week I took her to a doctor's appointment in Terre Haute.  It was like arriving with royalty, I tell you.  As soon as I pulled her into the waiting room, the receptionist came out, sat down next to Grandma and they talked and talked with another nurse and a patient...all about food and vegetables.  The waiting room was like the Grandma Great food network or something.  I know if she had had a few kitchen supplies and ingredients, she would've whipped up some wilted lettuce (I've never once had this at her house or known her to have it) and a batch of fried mushrooms for everyone.  Anything but peas, sweet potatoes, squash or carrots.

And when her name was called and I pushed her back to the exam room, three different nurses asked her if she had had any sweet potatoes or carrots lately.  Good heavens, is there anyone that hasn't heard about the vegetables?